Murray Hill Hotel, 1918
Location Description
Street Address: Park Avenue and East 40th Street
Murray Hill Hotel, Park Avenue, west side between 40th and 41st Streets, 1918.
The Murray Hill Hotel; Built: 1884; Razed: 1947; Architect: Stephen D. Hatch. Owner Hugh Smith developed the 600 room hotel just blocks from Grand Central Terminal on a site which previously housed stables for the Madison Ave. stagecoach lines. The enormous red brick building was arranged around two courtyards. The main entrance was a colonnaded portico above which the building rose to a gable. It was demolished in 1947 to make way for an office building at 100 Park Avenue.
See Related Images
- Architect — Hatch, Stephen D. (Stephen Decatur), 1839-1894
- Architectural Element — Bow windows
- Architectural Element — Gables
- Architectural Element — Colonnades
- Architectural Element — Brickwork (Masonry)
- Building Type — Hotels
- Date — 1930s and Earlier
- Streets — Park Avenue
- Subjects — Park Avenue (New York, N.Y.)
- Subjects — Murray Hill Neighborhood (New York, N.Y.)
- Subjects — Murray Hill Hotel (New York, N.Y.)
Building Information
| Date Built | 1884 |
| Date Razed | 1947 |
| Original Owner | Smith, Hugh. |
Photo Credits
| Format | 1 photographic reproduction ; 24.1 x 19.5 cm. |
| Photo Taken | 1918 |
| Rights Statement | Image courtesy of the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association |
October 15th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I live in Sierra Vista, AZ 70 miles SE of Tucson. Today I was browsing through our local Salvation Army Thrift store and happened upon a salad or dessert plate that was backmarked “made exclusively for Murray Hill Hotel. It appears old and has a light brown and blue/gray ornate border with a picture of a dragon standing on a crown done in the same colors. I believe it is a piece from the old hotel dining room. Would like to confirm it is the hotel pattern.
October 17th, 2009 at 8:22 am
The easiest place to check would be a reference work for collectors focusing on china patterns. These books are widely available. There are some which specialize in the china for restaurants and railroads so you might find information on hotel dinner services as well.
The contents of large hotels like the Murray Hill were sometimes sold at auction so I checked the WorldCat library database and found this item:
Auction sale: entire contents of the world famous Murray Hill Hotel … To be sold on the premises, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, May 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd, 1947, at 10.30 A.M. each day. New York : A. Schaap & Sons, 1947.
The only copy is at the Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin. Depending on when the china you purchased was produced you might find mention of it in the catalog but it would mean a bit of work on your part, perhaps working with a librarian.